


Parting Ways

by emmadilla



Series: Fallout AU [10]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Angst, Arguing, F/M, Fights, Hurt, Loss, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 00:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18304700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmadilla/pseuds/emmadilla
Summary: A little peek into what happened when Arthur Maxson was named Elder and gave Ruby an ultimatum about Charon. It goes about as well as one can expect.





	Parting Ways

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, here we go, last one-shot before Camp NaNoWriMo. Halle-fuckin-lujah.

Fuming, Ruby stormed into her quarters, her displeasure well known as she threw inconsequential items around, banging and heaving and shoving anything she could get her hands on. Charon eyed her carefully from the door, not willing to step in just yet and potentially suffer her wrath. No, she had to work this out herself for now. And work it out she would.

 

She paused in the middle of the room, tears stinging her eyes. How could he do this? How could he just abandon everything that Owyn Lyons stood for? Had everything the old man imparted on him truly meant nothing? In truth, Arthur had spent far more time with Owyn than Ruby had, but what the former Vault dweller knew of him – both from personal interaction and from knowing well his daughter, Sarah – she knew that the old man would be gravely disappointed in how Arthur had changed. While Owyn still had some issues with ghouls – issues that Ruby had been working on with Charon – he still put helping the people of the Capitol above all else. She didn't know exactly where Arthur was pulling these ideas from, these beliefs that he espoused in his speech earlier when he officially accepted the title of Elder, but it sure as shit didn't come from either Lyons. Or anyone who supported Lyons' efforts. The way it had seemingly crept up seemed almost ... sinister, in nature.

 

Clenching her fist, the first of the tears started to fall. Just who had gotten their claws into Arthur? Arthur, that sweet little kid Ruby had met once upon a time, a kid who just wanted to please his instructors, who just wanted a friend. She had done her best to be that friend, after Project Purity, in between missions both personal and Brotherhood. But a jaded Vault dweller wasn't great company for a lot of people, much less a kid who needed guidance like he had, and while she'd done her best, she understood her limits. But now she doubted herself, because obviously whoever had been around him had poisoned him, steered him back towards the old ways of the Brotherhood where they didn't give a shit about the people, they were concerned only with the accumulation of technology and not letting it fall into the hands of non-Brotherhood personnel. And along with that came the promise to eradicate anything non-human. Which, considering that included the vast majority of super mutants and feral ghouls, that part was fine. But when it came to the occasional – and admittedly rare – super mutant that was friendly and wasn't aggressive, or non-feral ghouls, that order still stood.

 

And that was something Ruby couldn't stand idly by and just allow to happen. Charon was someone who was very near and dear to her. He had been with her and supported her through the tumultuous events that occurred shortly after she emerged from the Vault, he had been her sanity in a world gone mad. He still implored her to keep their relationship secret, for her sake, but at this point in her life she truly didn't care. She loved him and hang anyone who would judge her for finding comfort and affection in him. Likewise, she was still good friends with Fawkes, the intelligent super mutant – or "meta human" as he preferred to be referred to as – that she'd met in Vault 87. He was a rarity amoung his kind, of course, but the fact that the Brotherhood would now cease to overlook this fact and would simply shoot him on sight didn't sit well with her. If he had been able to work himself back to a level of civility, who said it couldn't be done with others? Should they simply be abandoned because they had changed? Shouldn't there at least be some sort of attempt before extermination? Nobody seemed to want to consider these philosophical questions, and Ruby felt alone and adrift now, knowing that the Brotherhood she'd worked for and fought for had fundamentally changed. Sure, her initial joining had been in an honourary capacity, but afterward she had stayed because of how valiantly they worked to help the people of the Capitol. Now, however, she could barely recognise it with how Arthur and whoever had influenced him had twisted it. Or rather, had untwisted it and corrected it, setting it back on it's original path and purpose.

 

Sometimes, Ruby figured, a change in course was for the better, and that was definitely true in the Brotherhood's case.

 

She sat down heavily on the bed, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands, shoulders shaking with sobs as she cried out her disappointment, her frustration, her hurt. How could Arthur have done this? How could he have strayed this far? Ruby swore that if she ever found out who was pulling the strings from the shadows, she would kill them herself. Feeling a gentle hand on her shoulder, Ruby looked up to see Charon sit down next to her. "I'm sorry," the ghoul offered, and Ruby nodded, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest. How long he held her like that, she couldn't say, but when they finally parted, her throat was raw, her eyes were sore, and she had a pounding headache. Looking around the room, she realised how little she had to pack. She had originally settled into the room nicely, but over time she had stored less and less in there until it was little more than a utilitarian bunk room. Perhaps, subconsciously, she had sensed this shift, had known that there would be a point where she would need to cut ties and leave. Maybe it was just something she hadn't wanted to admit to herself, little things that added up over time that made her uncomfortable, made this departure inevitable.

 

Of course, that was it. The original arm of the Brotherhood had surely been unhappy to lose its East Coast influence to Owyn Lyons and his unique philosophy. But Owyn was only one man, and it was only a matter of time before he died, before those who supported him died or were otherwise incapacitated or had their influence lessened. They had needed only bide their time, and bide their time they did, jumping on the opportunity to feed their philosophy back into the arm that they perceived to be broken, the arm that instead was perfectly fine and it was the body itself that was broken and needed repair. Somehow, some way, they'd been able to insert themselves right where they needed to be in order to influence the young Arthur Maxson. And it would be easy, wouldn't it? Because he was so young, so eager to prove himself, so needy for approval and praise that he would accept it from anyone. And Ruby hadn't been there to try to rebuff the bad influences for him. She should have, or at least she felt that way. Since she hadn't, the Brotherhood was now firmly back in line with its original purpose, and the wasteland was potentially fucked.

 

Fucking fantastic.

 

After her crying spell had calmed down and she had stopped drowning herself in grief and guilt, Ruby stood from her bed and started to pack, knowing that it wouldn't be long now. She had to rid this place of anything that would remind someone of her, would give up information about her, about where she might go, what she might do. There wasn't that much to begin with, but Ruby would purge her very essence from the Citadel if she had to. It was important. She wanted this space to remain forever barren, to seem empty even if someone else occupied it, forever tainted by her presence and now lack thereof. Yeah, so maybe she'd grown a little vindictive over the years. Fuck it. She figured she'd earned it. Watching your father die painfully and then almost dying in the same way kinda fucked a person up like that, not to mention all the other bullshit she'd been through. Nobody escaped that shit unscathed, they simply weren't meant to.

 

It was when she was mostly finished, Charon assisting her here and there, that there was a sharp knock on the door. Not soft and friendly, not unsure and questioning. No, it was hard and sure of itself, and Ruby knew there was only one person in the whole wasteland that knock could belong to. "Come in," she called out, nestling her Lyons' Pride recon armour in her pack. She wasn't sure if she would ever even wear it again, but she wasn't one to leave something potentially useful behind. It laid next to her Vaultsuit, a piece of clothing she hadn't donned in years. Maybe it was time. Maybe this was fate's way of telling her she would always be the former Vault dweller. Maybe she could never shake her past.

 

She shook her head as the door opened, and Arthur Maxson walked in. He was only, what, 16? So young. Too young, really, for this position of power that he'd been placed in. Physically, though, one wouldn't have known it to look at him. He was tall and broad, and he'd grown a nice thick beard that he kept carefully trimmed. A thick, ugly scar marred his face, the result of a fight with a deathclaw, a constant reminder of how tough and enduring a Maxson could be. Growing up in a Vault, no one she knew had any serious scars. Perhaps some as a result of needed surgery, like an appendix removal or something similar. But out here in the wasteland, scars only served to prove what you'd lived through, what you'd endured. And the toughest sumbitches were littered with them, proof positive of their endurance, badges of some sort of fucked up honour. Even despite her own efforts, she'd collected several over the years, though none as obvious as the one Arthur carried. That scar, that alone would carry him far out here, would lend credence to his words. As if he needed a boost to that fucking charisma that seemed to come to him naturally. Maybe it was a part of the natural Maxson charm, maybe it had been carefully cultivated in him by whoever was influencing him. Who really knew. Who really cared. He was in charge now. He had won. And now he'd come to kick her out.

 

Crossing her arms, she leaned her hips against the desk that her pack was set on, waiting for whatever pronouncement he'd come to make. He raised an eyebrow, then carefully eyed Charon, who cut an imposing figure in the corner. "I see you still have it follow you around," he said simply, and Ruby was already bristling at how he refused to acknowledge Charon as his own person.

 

"Of course I do. I've known him for years, why wouldn't I?"

 

Arthur didn't skip a beat. "Because it's an abomination, you know that. This ... allowance that you've been offered regarding this thing ... it stops now."

 

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "So you're making me choose, then?"

 

"You are making yourself choose. You know the right decision, what you need to make. You chose to get close to it, and you must make the final choice now." Stepping a little closer to her, hands clasped behind his back, shoulders straight as a board, his voice held no softness, no familiarity, no hint at all that he and Ruby had been as close as they'd been at one point in time. "As a friend, I come to you instead of simply carrying this out, to offer this to you. You can turn it out into the wasteland, or you can allow me to destroy it for you. I'm not so heartless as to force you to perform the act yourself. But you must decide."

 

Her eyes flashed and her teeth clenched as she worked to keep her rage at bay. "No. I refuse. This is bullshit, Arthur and you know it. Charon has more than proved himself."

 

He shook his head slightly, the smallest of smiles gracing his lips. "You've always been so sentimental, always strived to see the best in others. That goodness has blinded you, and if I have to remove the blindfold from you myself, then I will." His expression hardened as he said, "Choose."

 

Ruby stood tall, shoulders back, arms at her sides, stretching herself as high as she could even though she couldn't possibly hope to meet Arthur on a level gaze. He had several inches on her, had for a year or so now. He had forever changed from that little boy she'd met once, and she regretted ever leaving him to the whims of whoever had gotten a hold of him. "Who are you? What have you done with my friend? With the Arthur Maxson I met once upon a time here? The friend I knew would never say these things."

 

Arthur's stance and expression didn't waver. "I grew up, Ruby. People change."

 

She glared at him. "No, people don't grow into assholes without an asshole guiding them that way. Who got their fingers into you? Who's been feeding you this nonsense?"

 

Not even a muscle twitched as he replied, "Is it so hard to accept that this is always who I was meant to be? That I was meant to guide the East Coast back into the fold?"

 

"Yes, because that's a load of shit and you know it, Arthur, your pride just won't accept that you've been manipulated into the position you're in."

 

Oh, he bristled at that. "You think I haven't earned this title? That I don't deserve it?"

 

"You're a _kid_ , Arthur! You're 16 years old, no kid needs this, no kid is ready for this! Someone's been all up in your head, filling you with things you want to hear until your inflated ego believes that it's all you. Well it's not. This is not the Arthur I knew." Ruby trembled in anger as she faced him down, unsure whether she wanted to cry or reach out and slap him in the face. "I don't recognise you anymore."

 

Arthur was silent for a few moments, and in that space, Ruby hoped that maybe she'd gotten through to him, that maybe something she'd said had resonated with him. After the pause, however, he opened his mouth and proved her wrong. "You have an hour to decide. Either it goes or it dies. And if you refuse, then I have no other option than to banish you from the Brotherhood."

 

Anger and rage bubbled up in her stomach, and she wasn't sure if she would throw up or pass out, but her next actions were pure instinct. Reaching up, she ripped off the Brotherhood patch that decorated her fatigues, throwing it at Arthur's broad chest before she flipped him off right in his face. "Fuck you, Arthur Maxson, fuck you and everything you stand for." Grabbing her pack, she stuffed the few items that were left before she zipped it up and motioned to Charon to follow her. She paused only once at the door, looking back at the young Elder as she tossed what she hoped was a poisoned dagger. "I'm glad Owyn and Sarah are dead, they'd be disappointed to see what you've turned into."

 

And that was it. She didn't even give him a chance to respond as she turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her. She didn't think, couldn't think, as she let her feet carry her wherever it would. It was a good thing the Brotherhood had mostly cleared out the tunnels around the Citadel, because she knew she would have been useless in a firefight right about then. Charon was a silent shadow behind her, following her every move, covering her from any potential harm, just as he always had, just as he always would. He was her rock, her solid foundation that she could lean on. Ruby had precious few friends anymore. Charon was about the only one now. _And maybe,_ she thought with tears stinging her eyes once again, _maybe that's for the best. The less I have to lose the less it hurts._

 

That night, Ruby and Charon settled into their little space in Underworld. A few days after that, they were back in Megaton. A week later, they were in Rivet City, and they kept up that schedule, just bouncing around places, never really settling in one place for too long. Because settling in meant getting attached, and Ruby was far too hurt to do that again. Charon was the only thing she had now, the only thing she didn't want to lose, didn't want to have to part ways with. If he was meant to be her whole world, then so be it, he would be her fucking world, and Arthur Maxson and the Brotherhood could go fuck themselves.

 

It was only in the dead of the night, when she knew Charon was asleep, that she would give a glance toward whichever direction she knew the Citadel laid in and wonder if things could ever change. There was a gulf between her and Arthur now, one that she wasn't sure when it started, one that she didn't think could ever be breached. But in those moments, she wondered and she hoped that one day, maybe things could go back to the way they were. When day would break, she would banish such nonsensical thoughts, remember all the reasons why she had parted ways with the Brotherhood. But at night it would seem almost possible. And somehow, subconsciously, she clung to that through the years, praying for something to kick Arthur in the ass and set him straight.

 

She just never gambled on that actually coming true.

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up writing a sequel to this, so if you read this and enjoyed it, give it's sequel a peek, too! It's the very next fic in the Fallout AU series, so all ya gotta do is hit the "next" link to get to "Reconciliation". :)


End file.
